Plant Identification, Selection, and Installation
What this domain tests
This domain tests whether you can name Florida-adapted trees, palms, shrubs, and groundcovers; judge whether a plant is legal to sell and appropriate for a given light, soil, salt, and cold exposure; and install it to ANSI A300 Part 6 and UF/IFAS standards so it survives past the warranty period.
Right plant, right place
- USDA cold hardiness spans 8a in the Panhandle to 11b in the Keys, so a plant that thrives in Miami can freeze in Tallahassee. Screen for zone, heat, salt spray, wind, and mature size.
- Florida-Friendly is not the same as native. Natives are adapted and support wildlife, but many non-native, non-invasive species are also approved.
- Invasives: FLEPPC Category I species such as Brazilian pepper, melaleuca, Australian pine, carrotwood, and Old World climbing fern cause ecological damage; FDACS noxious weed and prohibited lists make some plants illegal to sell, move, or plant.
- Specify by botanical name and cultivar. Common names collide, and cultivar traits such as size, flower color, and disease resistance change the design.
Installation standards
- Dig the hole two to three times the root ball width but no deeper than the root ball; the root flare sits at or slightly above grade.
- Remove the container, all twine and rope, and at least the top half of burlap; pull back the top of the wire basket.
- Do not heavily amend the backfill, do not fertilize at planting, and mulch 2-3 inches, kept off the trunk.
- Palms must not be buried: the dark, fibrous root-initiation zone stays at or above the soil surface. Palms respond to potassium and magnesium far more than to nitrogen.
- Water is the limiting factor for about a year, and staking should come off within one growing season.
Worked example
A bed measures 40 ft by 25 ft, or 1,000 sq ft. You are spacing 3-gallon shrubs 4 ft on center in a triangular, staggered pattern. Triangular spacing puts 0.866 times the spacing squared of area under each plant: 0.866 x 16 = 13.9 sq ft. Then 1,000 / 13.9 = 72 plants. Rectangular spacing at the same distance would use 1,000 / 16 = 63, so the staggered layout fits roughly 15% more plants and closes the canopy faster. Add 5% for culls and curves: 72 x 1.05 = 76 plants.
Traps
- Calling every non-native plant invasive.
- Ordering by common name and receiving the wrong species or cultivar.
- Heavy backfill amendment or fertilizing at planting.
- Burying the palm root-initiation zone, the most common fatal palm installation error.
- Ignoring mature spread when selecting plants for a narrow bed under a 6-ft window.